Kids TV

Netflix says of the controversial plan to reward children for watching television: “We’ve concluded the test for patches and have decided not to move forward with the feature for kids. We test lots of things at Netflix in order to learn what works well – and what doesn’t work well – for our members.”

Netflix is testing out a new feature that lets children collect "patches" for watching episodes of certain kids' shows like Fuller House. There is no reward for earning patches, which has parents questioning why kids need to be encouraged to watch more television.

The animated preschool classic is coming back with a new live-action host. Production on a 20-episode new season will begin this summer, with a casting call for a new host set for next month. During its run from 1996 to 2002, Blue's Clues offered an alternative to Sesame Street for little kids. It also made host Steve Burns a star among children. But his departure in 2002 sparked all kinds of rumors, including that he had died of a heroin overdose. In a 2016 interview, Burns cleared up why he left: he was balding and aging out of the role, and he felt it was time to move on.

It was on Feb. 19, 1968 that Mister Rogers went national. "Fifty years ago Monday, when Fred Rogers showed up on national public television as the host of what then was a brand new children's show called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, TV was a lot different," says TV critic David Bianculli, who sits on the Fred Rogers Center's advisory board. "PBS wasn't even a network then — not by that name, anyway — and aside from CBS, NBC and ABC, there were only a few independent local channels to watch, if that. But 50 years ago, young kids were pretty much the same. I interviewed Fred Rogers a few times over the years, and one time I asked him about the secret of his success — why his slow, deliberate manner of relating to children, and why seeming to look at them and talk to them directly through the TV lens, connected so strongly with young viewers. This is what he told me: 'Every one of us longs to be in touch with honesty. ... I think we're really attracted to people who will share some of their real self with us.'" ALSO: Fred Rogers' widow, Joanne Rogers, says he would've approved of being honored with a U.S. Postage stamp.

“I was so excited when they asked me to be Miss Nanny,” Slate says of her role on the Disney Junior animated series. “I was excited in general to hear that the Muppet Babies were returning to television. I am a lifelong Muppet fan. I watched the original show as a kid.”

David Joyner who played the Barney & Friends purple dinosaur role from 1991 to 2001, launched his Tantric sex massage business in 2004. The business currently boasts 30 clients — or “goddesses,” as he calls them.

“Because fewer adults actually pay attention to Sesame Street these days, the series has turned down the dial on pop-culture parodies, such as one spoofing Mad Men, from 2009, with an advertising executive thanking his staff for making him happy," says Troy Patterson.

Steven Spielberg will produce the revival of the animated WB series that aired its last episode 20 years ago this week. Hulu’s deal also involves the acquisition of all past Animaniacs episodes, plus Pinky and the Brain, Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, and the complete Tiny Toon Adventures collection. The new Animaniacs is expected to premiere in 2020, with Hulu deeming the revival as its first original series made exclusively for families.